A Salt Lake City police officer has been disciplined for giving a stabbing victim’s gun to a bystander — who absconded with the weapon.
According to a letter from SLCPD Chief Mike Brown dated Oct. 15, officer Rich Clawson was suspended for 10 hours without pay for his actions — as the whereabouts of the gun remain a mystery.
Police received a report of a fight at the Moose Lounge at 180 W. 400 South on Sept. 10, 2017, and Clawson arrived to discover that two of the bar’s security guards had been stabbed. A male bystander was administering first aid to one of the victims and Clawson “asked the male if he and [the victim] were friends and if he would take possession of the handgun” that the security guard was carrying legally.